60 years of No 1 singles + Soul | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/series/60-years-of-no-1-singles+soul
model.DotcomContentType$TagIndex$@540d8e54en-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017Thu, 14 Dec 2017 01:42:49 GMT2017-12-14T01:42:49Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
The best No 1 records: the Supremes – Baby Lovehttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/31/the-supremes-baby-love
<strong>1964:</strong> The year wasn't just about Beatlemania – it also saw the Supremes soar to the top of the charts, and with them the idea of the girl group<p>The year that Beatlemania took over the world wasn't just about men with moptops. The girl group, all sparkling vocals and shimmering X chromosomes, was also reaching its first, dizzy peak. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23UkIkwy5ZM" title="">Baby Love</a> began life as a copy of the Supremes' previous hit <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izzKUoxL11E" title="">Where Did Our Love Go?</a> (note the same tinkling pianos and "baby baby" backing vocals) before Motown songwriters Holland-Dozier-Holland accidentally struck gold. It starts very sweetly, Diana Ross's vocal sounding tentatively optimistic, even though she knows she is losing her lover. After the key-change, however, someone else emerges: a young woman knowing that "loneliness has got the best of me". As a teenager, this lyric stung me; as a grown-up, it propels me back. In Baby Love's beauty and crushing sadness is the pivot between childhood and adulthood. Pop's soul lives there too.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/31/the-supremes-baby-love">Continue reading...</a>Pop and rockMusicCultureSoulThu, 31 May 2012 20:48:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/31/the-supremes-baby-lovePhotograph: Michael Ochs ArchivesThe Supremes. Photograph: Michael Ochs ArchivesPhotograph: Michael Ochs ArchivesThe Supremes. Photograph: Michael Ochs ArchivesJude Rogers2012-05-31T20:48:00ZThe best No 1 records: the Four Tops - Reach Out I'll Be Therehttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/31/four-tops-reach-out
<strong>1966:</strong> With Levi Stubbs at the microphone, could this be as plausible a candidate for the ultimate No 1 as any?<p>The drums send out signals to the distant damsel in distress, the woodwinds pine in empathy, and then Levi Stubbs rides in on a white horse, reaching down, pulling the girl from the swamp. Soul has many screamers who over-emote but Levi Stubbs is always entirely believable. Usually Four Tops songs found him standing in the shadows on a lonely street, but on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvoPOrBm-4w" title="">Reach Out</a> he got to be a hero for once. It was followed at No 1 by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCeD_6Y3GQc" title="">Good Vibrations</a>; in a way, they are the ultimate number ones. Both records condense so much, deftly mixing so many genres and new sounds inside three minutes, that you can only marvel at how it must have felt to hear them on the radio for the first time.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/31/four-tops-reach-out">Continue reading...</a>Pop and rockMusicCultureSoulThu, 31 May 2012 20:46:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/31/four-tops-reach-outPhotograph: Michael Ochs Archives/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/REDFERNSMotown group Four Tops in the 60s. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Michael Ochs Archives/RedfernsPhotograph: Michael Ochs Archives/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/REDFERNSMotown group Four Tops in the 60s. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Michael Ochs Archives/RedfernsBob Stanley2012-05-31T20:46:00Z